The Spectator
by Sakura4eva
Summary: As Haruno Sakura, I am the mother, the healer, and also the spectator. Thus, I will fulfill the only role of these I have left.' No pairings! Character death... One shot


**Warning: **It's angsty...

**Disclaimer:** Consider it **disclaimed**. :)

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The Spectator

It was 'destined', as all the whispers say. This was what was going to happen from the beginning, and they even said so themselves.

I didn't play a part in this from the beginning, did I? Never considered, never acknowledged. Even the gods of this whole plot have forgotten me. I'm an extra. A filler.

_Weak._

How I hate that.

My team mates, superior in everything but healing. So, inevitably, they go out and fight their great battles and I'm just the afterthought; I fix their glorious mess – always in the background.

But here they are, both having claimed that they'll die together in this battle to the death. They'll go down in history doing what they do best and I'll be the pitied one. The one who couldn't do their best suit, crying at the foot of both their bodies.

Pity is disgusting. Weakness is shame, and I can't escape it. It can only be shame when you don't have enough strength.

Now I'm not about to go whining 'Why me?' or 'It's not fair!' I've always known it wasn't fair.

So I watch as they exchange the life-threatening blows. Those damned salty tears are blocking my vision. Can't even tell whose blood is whose anymore.

There's so much of it.

Don't they know how much themselves; each other; … me?

Do they even care?

Their feet are unsteady, their arms battered and shaking. This is it. Two minutes from now, it'll be silence and we'll see who is right.

Naruto, you've waited for this moment, haven't you? From day one, you were always ready to defeat him. Is it worth it? Is this the feeling that you thought that you'd feel? But there's no way you could have know. You always were an idiot.

Sasuke...kun? Did you ever deserve that enduring suffix? I'm not sure, but it's more habit than anything else. Every time you think you've completed a goal, another pops up. You do know that you won't get another chance after this, right? I think that you were probably always an idiot, too, and a 'teme'. Naruto was right about that.

Looks like he'll be right a second time, huh?

You are my precious brother, Naruto. I _do_ love you, I really do, but it's nothing more that platonic – and you already knew that. Sasuke, I cannot love what I do not know. But I know that I did love you.

Time is so slow sometimes, isn't it? Unbearably slow. At the same time, though, I feel that it went too fast.

So here's that last moment. The one everyone will always remember.

Every eye is watching. Again, you two are the center of attention.

Roles are switched:  
Uzumaki Naruto, the courageous survivor, the misunderstood monster, the _hero_.  
Uchiha Sasuke, the lone survivor, the misunderstood child, the crazed avenger.

Are you really that different, though?

Naruto isn't always courageous – sometimes he's even a big baby. Sasuke isn't really alone, he's always had a blood brother, and a soul brother. I bet that everything you two do and say has always been understood by the other. And you two are both heroes, both avengers.

Fighting to the death; isn't that a sign of both being crazed and out-of-control?

So, I only see Naruto and Sasuke. Throwing tantrums? I suppose. This one, though, isn't one that two motherless children can be stopped. Being stopped was never an option.

I know that. As Haruno Sakura, I am the mother, the healer, and also the spectator. Thus, I will fulfill the only role of these I have left.

I watch and wait for the inevitable. I cry as you both fall, but I do not look away.

Our friends huddle together in a large cluster, but it is lethally silent. For we know – all of us – that was it. The moment.

We know because it hurts. None of our wounds, but our hearts. They ache and the tears don't stop.

I still haven't looked away from the unmoving bodies. I know you two aren't there anymore, but this is the only way I can be strong, now. For you. And I will carry on.

Looking around the battlefield, I call out, "Get the wounded to the hospital or to the nearest medic! If you can move, then your help is appreciated! The dead," I start and I know all eyes are on me. "They will each have an honorable ceremony. Tonight is for them."

Then, with slow, deliberate steps, I go up to my fallen precious comrades and stopping at their feet, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I don't even need to look up to know who it is.

"Good work, Sakura."

His weary voice is proud but it reveals the pain we both feel and I break there.

"Thanks... Kaka-sensei."

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**AN: Okay, so first off: Nothing implied by that last line! Just someone they can both connect to, so I want you to know that this didn't suddenly develop into a KakaSaku fic! Not at all!! Um... So, yeah... Anyway (now that I've finished defending my meanings... :P), I've been dead for a bit, but then I realized I should put something out to keep peoples suspicions down. -.-' Review if you like. :)**

- _Cady _**:D**


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